In a sudden move this past Thursday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating that Lake Ontario be officially renamed Lake America. The administration has tasked the Department of the Interior and Secretary Doug Burgum with the immediate implementation of this change. As one of the five iconic Great Lakes, the body of water serves as a natural border between the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province of Ontario.

This controversial decision arrives at a particularly strained moment for international relations between the two neighbors. The announcement follows the recent collapse of trade negotiations, where officials from both nations traded blame for the failure of the three-day summit. As of now, the office of Prime Minister Mark Carney has yet to issue a formal statement regarding the directive or its potential impact on cross-border affairs.